OFF THE PAGE

When I was tapped last year to head up the Teen Poetry Slam at the Sonoma County Book Festival, I said yes – but I needed a crash course in slam. Asking around, one name kept popping up. “You need to talk to Brianna Sage.”
Brianna and I spoke on the phone, and she invited me to come to her event, the Northbay Poetry Slam in Sebastopol. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting – but it was not the 18-year-old in a fedora, cooly running a show with dozens in attendance. She handed me a judge’s board and said, “You might as well jump right in; that’s the best way to learn.”
For those of you unfamiliar with slam, it’s a competitive sport. All who have signed up have three minutes at the mic to give it their best shot in the first round, while judges rank them from one to 10. Scores are called out loud; audience members cheer for ratings they agree with, and boo those they don’t like. The top five poets advance to round two, and then it’s narrowed to three, with cash prizes after the third round.
Brianna says, “It’s not what you expect poetry to be, people reading off notebooks, all airy-fairy. Slam blows that out of the water. It’s a theatrical performance. They breathe the poems into life. The poets capture you, grab you and pull you into the story. We don’t want you to be quiet at our events.”
Brianna, whose stage name is BeSage, has been performing most of her life. As an infant and child with her mom, and later on her own, she attended the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium, which had a talent show, and Brianna always did poetry. In 2010, a woman named Tawnie Love heard her and invited Brianna to attend her show, Ladies’ Limelight at Aubergine Cafe in Sebastopol, an open mic just for women. She performed there every week all summer. It included other talent, such as dancing, music and beatbox. That same year, Brianna happened to hear of the Sonoma County Library Slam and competed, winning first place.
As Brianna says, there really wasn’t a spoken word scene at that time in Sonoma County, no regular place to perform. Patrick Malone, event coordinator and talent buyer for Hopmonk Tavern, approached her and asked if she’d like to start a show at his venue. She was 16 at the time.
“At first I thought he was just asking me to perform,” she remembers. “Then I realized, ‘No – you’re asking me to create the show!’ I mean, I had just started driving! I had a lot of stage fright. I spent three months preparing, figuring out what I would say on stage. But the first time I actually stepped up there, I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing.”
The Northbay Poetry Slam has now been running continuously on one Sunday a month for three years – and Brianna won’t turn 20 until November. It regularly draws a full house, including a posse of competitors from the East Bay, enticed by the cash prizes.
“One thing that has amazed me,” Brianna said, “is how involved the community is. When I first started, it was just me. The only help I had was from my mom, my girlfriend. Now when I think of [the show] there’s a crew. That has inspired me more than anything; that one person’s idea can blossom into something.”
The next North Bay Poetry Slam will be on Sunday, Oct. 6, at Hopmonk Tavern, 230 Petaluma Avenue. Doors open at 8 p.m., with open mic at 8:30 p.m., followed by the featured poet, then the slam. Cost is $5 to $10 sliding scale. It is an all-ages show. For regular info, check out the Facebook page, Northbay Poetry Slam.